Dec. 6, 2013--Consumer Federation of California (CFC), The Utility Reform Network (TURN), and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), are calling on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to revamp outdated telecom privacy rules.
The CPUC will decide in January between two competing Commissioner proposals. One proposal grants, and the other proposal denies, a petition submitted by CFC, TURN and PRC to initiate a wireless telecom privacy rulemaking proceeding.
Commissioner Catherine Sandoval, a law professor and telecom expert, penned a proposal that says the state, through the CPUC, should update outdated privacy rules to protect phone customers. Sandoval’s proposal would initiate a privacy rulemaking, noting many changes to telecommunications practices and technologies since the CPUC reviewed the privacy rules decades ago.
Unfortunately, at odds with Commissioner Sandoval’s proposal, Commissioner Mark Ferron wrote a proposed decision, one that would not allow the rulemaking to go forward because he finds there is no demonstrated privacy problem with cell phones. Commissioner Ferron would dismiss privacy concerns because of a “lack of documented examples of actual breaches of customer privacy by telecommunications corporations,” among other rationales.
“Too often we hear news about our personal information being sold or shared without our knowledge or consent. We can’t trust corporate phone giants to make those decisions for us,” said Richard Holober, CFC Executive Director.
In 1986, when the current rules were drafted, phones didn’t track location, bill payments and other personal information. But many rules governing phone privacy in California are wholly inadequate to protect modern consumers’ constitutional right to privacy, and privacy rules that apply to traditional residential landlines do not all apply to cell phones.
Today, mobile carriers as well as application developers can collect, store, and use a customer’s personal information, regardless of their knowledge or consent. For example, over 140 million customers of Sprint, AT&T and other phone companies were tracked through their phones by Carrier IQ software that phone companies had quietly embedded in mobile devices without customers’ permission. It runs automatically and has the ability to record location, phone numbers called, application downloads, even when text messages are sent or received.
Ms. Sandoval’s proposal notes that Carrier IQ is not the only company tracking phone consumers. When a Verizon Wireless customer navigates to a website on her smart phone, information about that website, as well as the customer’s location and demographic background, maybe sold to businesses including malls, stadiums and billboard owners.
“The phone companies have failed to protect our privacy,” said TURN’s Executive Director, Mark Toney. “When they force tracking software on unwitting customers, consumers really have no choice. That flies in the face of our constitutional right to privacy.”
CFC, TURN and PRC petitioned the CPUC a year ago. The CPUC is scheduled to vote on Thursday, January 16, at its regular business meeting, whether to protect consumers’ telecom privacy or to stay with outdated rules that were put in place before cell phones and data-mining applications existed.